The Bravados (1958)

A man is chasing four outlaws who killed his wife and finds them in a small town's jail, but they escape to Mexico.

Director:

Henry King

Writers:

Philip Yordan (screenplay), Frank O'Rourke (novel)

Stars:

Gregory Peck, Joan Collins, Stephen Boyd

1 win & 1 nomination.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Gregory Peck	...	Jim Douglass
Joan Collins	...	Josefa Velarde
Stephen Boyd	...	Bill Zachary
Albert Salmi	...	Ed Taylor
Henry Silva	...	Leandro Lujan
Kathleen Gallant	...	Emma Steinmetz
Barry Coe	...	Tom
George Voskovec	...	Gus Steinmetz
Herbert Rudley	...	Sheriff Eloy Sanchez
Lee Van Cleef	...	Alfonso Parral
Andrew Duggan	...	Padre
Ken Scott	...	Primo - Deputy Sheriff
Gene Evans	...	John Butler
Ninos Cantores de Morelia Choral Group	...	Themselves (as The Niños Cantores De Morelia Choral Group)

Storyline

Jim Douglass (Gregory Peck) has been relentlessly pursuing the four outlaws who murdered his wife, but finds them in jail about to be hanged. While he waits to witness their execution, they escape; and the townspeople enlist Douglas' aid to recapture them.

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Plot Keywords:

outlaw gang | revenge | chase | based on novel | arizona | 

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Taglines:

No power on God's earth could stop him from destroying the Bravados one by one...for what they did to the woman he loved!

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Genres:

Drama | Western

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

1958 (Norway)

Also Known As:

The Bravados

Filming Locations:

Yucatán, Mexico

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Color (Color by Deluxe)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

While filming, Gregory Peck decided to become a cowboy in real-life, so he purchased a vast working ranch near Santa Barbara, California, already stocked with six hundred head of prize cattle.

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Goofs

When the first gang member lies in ambush, he is seen crawling past a large green shrub and behind broken blades of dry grass. After he is spotted by Jim Douglass and the camera cuts back to him, the exact same shot is repeated as though it is happening further along in the story.

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Quotes

Jim Douglass: You're wasting a lot of good lumber. A tree does just as well.
Sheriff Sanchez: They were sentenced to be hanged - not lynched!

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Connections

Edited into Voskovec & Werich - paralelní osudy (2012)

User Reviews

Forgiveness is a many-splendored thing.

"Los Bravados" proves that Henry King totally mastered the western style among many others.Much more interesting than his precedent effort "the sun also rises",this work casts Peck as a desperate man eager to take revenge of four outlaws who killed and raped his wife. he arrives in the town where the criminals -or rather the men he thinks are the criminals- are to be hanged.

The first thirty minutes are the more convincing.The soundtrack is particularly remarkable:first we hear the hammers of the men building the scaffold;often there's no music at all and this ominous noise creates an agonizing atmosphere.Then ,later,the whole congregation attends the service in a baroque church and the canticles provides the movie with an even more sinister soundtrack.The editing shows in parallel the outlaws' escape and the people praying in the church where Peck gazes upon a madonna and her child:this picture will frequently come back in the movie as a leitmotiv:it's the image of forgiveness.

Because what makes this western worthwhile is the absurdity of the vengeance it depicts.Once a victim,the hero becomes a criminal.But as the priest says ,a lot of people kill and they do not feel any remorse. King's obsession seems to be the reconstruction of the family as well:Peck and his little girl with Collins ,and the half-breed who succeeded in convincing him that he's not responsible for his misfortune.And anyway ,for this director whose body of work stretches on 50 years ,forgiveness and love are many-splendored things.